A Madison woman was charged Friday with carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest after she attempted to take a box cutter onto an airplane Sept. 16 at the Dane County Regional Airport, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Sunday.
Lt. Sheriff Steve Gilmore said authorities do not think Xiaomei Zhang, 33, was trying to hijack a plane.
'It was determined this was an isolated incident,' Gilmore said in an interview with the State Journal. 'There was no real threat to the plane.'
After workers at a security checkpoint discovered a retractable razor-blade box cutter in her luggage, Zhang was interviewed by FBI agents, Gilmore said. The FBI did not detain her further or press federal charges.
Gilmore said Zhang struggled at a security checkpoint with two deputies and refused to say why she had the box cutter.
Zhang was trying to board a United Express flight to Chicago. Gilmore said from there, she would have continued on a United Airlines flight to Miami.
According to court records, Zhang was charged with disorderly conduct last year after she allegedly attacked her husband. The charge was dismissed after she began to receive treatment for schizophrenia.
Zhang is confined in UW Hospital's psychiatric ward, said the Dane County Sheriff's Office.
